Pregnant church worker who nicked £100k thinks there is no chance she’ll be jailed

A church worker who stole nearly £100,000 from the Diocese of Westminster has not made any arrangements for the birth of her child in two weeks because she is so confident she will not be jailed.

Francisca Yawson, 37, swiped the cash while handling charity donations beween September 2018 and August 2019.

But she has not told her family or asked them to help her because she believes she will not be in custody when the baby arrives.

Yawson had been employed as a ‘Gift Aid & Operations Technician’ at the Roman Catholic diocese, which includes Westminster Cathedral, since 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She also lavished her family with goods from John Lewis and transferred £8,500 of the cash by Western Union to Jamaica to help pay for medical bills for her grandmother.

The mother-of-three, of Stonebridge Park, Brent, northwest London, was due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after earlier admitting nine counts of theft totalling £96,329.

Judge Mark Weekes said he could not sentence Yawson as she has not informed her family current employers about these offences.

‘She has made no arrangement for child care if she is jailed.

‘I can’t proceed any further today. It is unbelievable that she has not sought to take any steps in that regard. She cannot assume that I am going to suspend the sentence.

‘She has to understand it is a very difficult decision for me.

‘There is a job of work to do to dissuade me from passing a custodial sentence.’

Judge Weekes told Yawson: ‘I am going to adjourn this case until 6 February next year. This case isn’t going anywhere.

‘I’m afraid so far that your approach to this suggests that you are burying your head in the sand, because you are not telling people about it.’

Yawson was convicted of cheque fraud in 2021 after she stole more than £16,000 from her partner’s mother, the court heard.

She was bailed ahead of sentence.